Getting Started: Joker

In my third article for Getting Started crew guides for the Batman Miniatures Game, I am taking a look at the Joker crew. Remember, in the Getting Started series I am going to focus on Batman Miniatures Game and specifically look at a crew at a time and give my thoughts as to what the starting point should be. The focus in these is getting started with the game, and not necessarily the greatest tournament winning and soul crushing lists. Each article is going to focus on ease and cost of ownership and provide a good first list beyond your starter box purchase.

With the Joker crew, it’s about tricks and getting the best out of low level thugs. Joker crews are considered a horde crew for the game where you are going to want to get the best out of the worst, quite literally! While this could mean that you are looking at a greater cost to get into the game from the start, Joker crews can bring in some great thematic free agents and sidekicks to help give the crew some needed bite as well. This can help you out with beginning model count as you get your crew to the table. As there is only one starter available for this crew in resin, both of my recommendations will use that crew box as a basis.Recommendation 1 – All the Thugs
Your going to go for models with this crew recommendation and I had to look at the idea of going full horde. To do this, starting with the Joker (Arkham Asylum) crew box I wanted to make sure you got all of those figures in here. This gives you the start of a nice, thematic force. Next, I added the Blackgate Prisoners box to add some bulk. The whole box, all of them. Finally, I added the new Harley Quinn Rebirth box with Bud and Lou. In the list, I didn’t opt to add in Bud in Lou so you have a couple of models you could play with. I think you could easily swap them in for say High Security Henchmen.

To play this right, you are going to want to maximize on using the Inspire ability which all leaders can use to give your mob of clowns and slower prisoners extra action counters. Harley is going to be super fast and able to make quick grabs at objectives. It’s best to support her, so High Security Henchman being deployed into the board will give her a little close combat support and Bouffon can run distraction as he fires his nail gun. As the Joker and mob advances Gustaff and White-Face can lay down supporting fire to soften up targets and don’t forget to use Joker’s one shot gun and Exploding Teeth to get early damage in. This crew isn’t going to hold up as well to strong combat fighters so try to either gang up on them or pull them away from your more valuable targets. After all, it’s more about numbers and less about quality here.

Joker (Arkham Asylum) – 105 rep/$0 funding

Harley Quinn (Rebirth) – 77 rep/$0 funding

White-Face – 24 rep/$200 funding

Bouffon – 22 rep/$200 funding

Hobo Clown – 14 rep/$0 funding

Prisoner 04211 – 18 rep/$400 funding

Prisoner 93432 – 20 rep/$0 funding

Prisoner 47905 – 23 rep/$350 funding

High Security Henchmen – 40 rep/$0 funding

Clown Paint x2 – 0 rep/$300 funding

Antidote – 0 rep/$50 funding

Overall the list comes in at 343 reputation and $1500 funding. Overall you end up with about $100 US retail in models and a couple of extra models in the collection to swap in and out to try some different things.

Recommendation 2 – Animal Instincts

People don’t think of the Joker crew as a big model crew. Partially that is because Joker’s biggest ability is trickster which lets you re-allocate your counters on all henchmen and Joker in the crew when they activate. It doesn’t affect sidekicks and free agents so you lose some of that advantage, even still, you can still get a good number of bodies on the table and bring some punchers. This list takes advantage again of the resin Joker (Arkham Asylum) crew box but instead of adding the prisoners, adds a couple of free agents. Again we are adding Harley (Rebirth) and now we add a power house with Killer Croc. There is a lot of funding free in this list and not a lot of models, so you can likely get it to the table pretty quick.

Joker (Arkham Asylum) – 105 rep/$0 funding

Harley Quinn (Rebirth) – 77 rep/$0 funding

Bud – 23 rep/$0 funding

Lou – 20 rep/$0 funding

Killer Croc – 125 rep/$0 funding

Improvised Armor – 0 rep/$150 finding

Antidote x2 – 0 rep/$150 funding

Rare Nth Medalion – 0 rep/$150 funding

Grapple Gun x2 – 0 rep/$150 funding

Pole Dancer – 0 rep/$100 funding

Gas Mask – 0 rep/$100 funding

There aren’t alot of models in this list, but it comes out to 350 rep and $1450 funding. With two grapple guns, you can give them to Harley and Joker to really add even more speed to those models. Couple that with Croc’s ability to start the game in contact with any sewer and you will be surprisingly in their face and where you want to be on turn one. Bud and Lou can either sit backfield protecting objectives and pouncing on enemy henchman that come close or they can go running up the board looking for the right prey. Long term, I don’t know that this list is ideal, but if you want to start with a lower model count and have a lot of speed, this list will do the trick and gets you some beautiful models.

What’s Next?

My opinion is try to track down the metal Joker Clown Sets 3, 1, 2 (in that order). From clown set 3 you get the Master of Ceremonies which is a solid addition being a durable henchman that has a double blood axe to swing. From box 1 both Triston and August are good. Triston with his Shotgun adding some additional firepower to the list and August with another double blood axe. From there, you have quite a few clowns to play with lists, particularly if you start with Option 1 and have the prisoner set as well. Finally, Hush is an excellent free agent that doesn’t break the bank on reputation and has some really handy rules, particularly when you start to add in strategies into your games.